Farmer leader Dallewal under house arrest in Faridkot ahead of dharna in Shambhu
Several key farmer activists in various districts of Punjab are being held by the police to prevent any law-and-order situation.
Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal was on Monday kept on house arrest in Faridkot district of Punjab, ahead of a call by senior farmer leaders for a one-day strike by Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) outside the Shambhu police station on Tuesday.
Several key farmer activists in various districts of Punjab are being held by the police to prevent any law-and-order situation. A police team reached Dallewal’s village around 4am and asked the leader to stay indoors for 3-4 days.
Official sources said several other leaders are facing police action to ensure that BKU (Sidhupur) fails to mobilise its cadre for the agitation.
Dallewal posted a video on his Facebook criticising the police action against the Sidhupur faction and said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is harassing the farmers’ rights group, which is fighting for justice.
The septuagenarian said union activists were to gather outside the Shambhu police station to highlight the alleged police misconduct and harassment of volunteers. He alleged that when dharnas sites at Khanauri and Shambhu were forcibly evicted by the police, the volunteers allegedly faced police misbehaviour and several belongings of the protesters, including tractors, went missing.
“When our union demanded compensation for the missing articles, the state police head ensured that losses would be compensated. The missing things were traced to close associates of AAP leaders and police personnel. Instead of initiating swift action against the culprit, the police started booking individuals who were tracking the missing articles of farmers. Now, when we planned against the police conduct, the government started an attempt to derail our agitation for May 6,” Dallewal said.
